Chris Saribay

His Irrelevant Ramblings at chrissaribay.com

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Parasailing Over Bay Lake

Sunday, August 23, 2009

My family really wanted to go parasailing during their vacation at Walt Disney World, so we headed down to Sammy Duvall’s Watersports Centre at Disney’s Contemporary Resort. Unfortunately Allison and myself’s tandem flight was cut a bit short due to weather, so we re-scheduled to go again on Saturday. This is the full video from our second flight above Bay Lake, just about a mile or so away from the Magic Kingdom. And just for fine viewers of this blog, it comes with captions!

Labels: PersonalDisneyVideos

A Brief Tour of Bay Lake Tower

Wednesday, August 5, 2009

About two years of anticipation have culminated in the opening of Bay Lake Tower at Disney’s Contemporary Resort, a new 16 story, 428 room addition to the Disney Vacation Club. The resort offers stunning studios, one and two bedroom vacation villas as well as two story three bedroom grand villas, all just steps from the Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World. Suffice it to say, the accommodations offered at Bay Lake Tower are sure to spoil any traveler; sleek modern design with al the comforts of home, including full kitchens, whirlpool tubs and a washer and dryer right in the room.

As a Cast Member here at the Contemporary Resort, we’ve been anxiously awaiting opening day, which was yesterday, to “Welcome Home” the first guests to Bay Lake Tower. Among the guest list that day was myself, and I have a bit of a tour of the resort (albeit a little shaky on the camera work) including a walk through of the one bedroom villa I stayed in.

Labels: Disney

Introducing a new, Disney focused blog

Tuesday, February 26, 2008

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As you all may have noticed (as evidenced below) I’ve made a lot of posts on this blog concentrated on my experiences as an intern on the Walt Disney World College Program. In anticipation of further movement in that direction and requests to put more of my experiences down to paper (er, bytes), I’m spinning off all future discussion on this topic to a new blog on this site: Irrelevant Ramblings: Disney Edition.

At some point, I may merge these two blogs, and I’m sure there may be some overlap, but with the amount I’m planning to post on the subject in the near future, I think it’s better to split it off for now.

More personal posts coming to this blog, later.

Labels: DisneyChrisSaribay.com News

Disney’s Hawaiian Resort

Wednesday, October 3, 2007

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There’s been a lot of rumors of a Disney owned and operated resort in Hawai’i, and this is the day those rumors die. Disney has spilled the beans on their latest Parks & Resorts product offering: a highly themed Disney Resort on 21 acres in Ko ‘Olina, a costal area on the island of Oahu. I’ve always believed Disney would build a resort in Hawaii, and they’ve finally headed in that direction.

Now will I be working there? We’ll see. (Direct Link to Video)

 

 

Labels: Disney

Can you hear that sound?

Monday, July 9, 2007

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This blog post has been a long time coming- I simply have just not had the time to get my thoughts down on this blog. Disney likes to keep people busy, and I am no grand exception to this rule. I’ll post three items today, and some additional things later on down the road.

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Item one: Moving up in the world. I’ve been working as part of the podium cast at ‘Ohana, a family style feast at Disney’s Polynesian Resort for the past couple months. While I’ve had a blast, there really hasn’t been anything hugely dynamic or differentiating about my experience- it’s an average role with average interaction (...and even though I work my tail off and make the magic happen everyday, somethings can get a little stale after a while). No more, however. Upon a visit to the training office (so I could, myself, take a trainer’s course to become a bonafide, certified trainer), I was coerced into becoming a facilitator for Disney’s Aloha Day class. In short, I’ll be training new hires coming in to the resort on one of their first days about Polynesian culture, the resort itself, and the excellent guest service we pride ourselves on. I sort of took the bone begrudgingly in a way; I accepted the role only in passing, but now I can see that I’m honestly very satisfied with the decision I made to become a facilitator- it’ll be something to distinguish my time at Disney from most others who have done this program.

...and best of all- no costume!

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Item two: the big move. In the midst of having almost two sets (!) of roommates terminated over at Vista Way, I had gotten a little fed up with life over at Vista. Those who are familiar with the situation know that I had tried to move over to Chatham Square, only to meet strong resistance from the program housing team back in February (”...we cannot move you to Chatham, it is not compatible with your program. If it was my choice, I would move you… but it’s not my choice to make, and there is no one person that can make that decision). I got on the horn in June, and low-and-behold, they’ve decided that they’d grant my request to move after the last original roommate I had was terminated.

Chatham is a much, much nicer complex. Even though I rarely see my new roomates (Mike, Parker and Rodney), life is good.

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Item three: Disney. I’ll have to expand on this in another post, but I love the company that I’m working for. Disney represents a lot of great things, and I don’t personally think that the extent of all that I can do here, all that I can take advantage of, is complete. I’ve chosen to extend my program up until January 2008. That probably marks some insanity on my part, but I’m insane to begin with.

Item three and a quarter: my iPhone rocks. More on that in another post.

That’s about all for now, I’ll post more soon.

Labels: PersonalDisney

‘Ohana

Sunday, March 25, 2007

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I’m now part of the cast at ‘Ohana, a family-style restaurant at Disney’s Polynesian Resort. ‘Ohana of course means family, and in that spirit, all of our guests and cast members are cousins throughout the course of service. The neat thing about ‘Ohana is that it in itself is a minority at the Walt Disney World Resort- our meals are served family style, meaning that you could have as much as you’d like (ala buffet), and we bring it all to you. It’s all very cool. If you (or anyone else) happens to stop by, you’ll see me either checking in guests at the podium, or guiding them to their tables.

Curious about our menu? Take a look.

I’m sure it took much thought and deliberation to put someone from Hawai’i at the Polynesian Resort, but I’m proud to be part of the team over at ‘Ohana.

Labels: PersonalDisney

Becoming part of the Magic

Wednesday, December 27, 2006

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I’ve been thinking about doing this for a while now- and having gone through the application and interview process, I’ve now come to the grand conclusion of the scheming and the realization of utter realities. You, the reader, are probably questioning what on Earth I’m talking about at this point, despite the massive hint in the image above. Shame on you for not being so observant, and shame on me for not being any more god damn obvious.

In order to get where we are now, we have to go back all the way to June, when I had come to the decision that I would take the year off from school and just lounge. Translation? Sit on my ass and twiddle my thumbs all day long. Not exactly, but you get the point- aside from the occasional miscellaneous side-job and ongoing projects, I haven’t been doing much these past few months. Back in June, I had toyed with the idea of doing the Disney College Program, but alas, forewent that opportunity.

Earlier this month, I had thoughts of doing this program again, and without the slightest bit of apprehension on my part, submitted the paper work and underwent a short interview. Nothing spectacular, but I figured I at least hadn’t bombed it. In the mail today came this lovely little packet from Disney Worldwide Services, Inc. stating that I had indeed been selected to participate in the program, and was extended a role as a FSFB Host. There’s a certain excitement to be sure, and at the same time, some apprehensiveness still on my part. What, exactly, is the experience to be? Only one thing is for sure- it must be better than sitting here on my tuckus most of my waking hours. If nothing else, this is an excuse to get my foot in the door over at Disney, which surely isn’t a bad place to get a proverbial foot in someone’s proverbial door.

That’s a stroke at brilliance, surely. I’ll be arriving in Orlando February 5th, and will stay for about six months.

Have a magical day. Strike that- have a magical new year.

Labels: PersonalDisney